Oh god!

I woke up early this morning and I put the radio on for a few minutes while my brain slowly defragged itself. It was a sunday morning religious programme and they were discussing a recent case in New York where a woman had had the temerity to lead a mixed congregation in prayer. The interviewer asked a british muslim leader about his views and for a while he was keen to stress that modern islam is enlightened and that women have many important roles to play, but when pressed a little further he said that an imam has a duty to lead prayer five times a day, every day, and that a woman couldn't do that when she was having her period.

Enlightened my arse.

The catholics are the same. They are quite happy for paedophiles to work as priests, as long as no one finds out, but a woman doing that job would be an abomination. The good old liberal c of e will let a woman work as a vicar, but they draw the line at a woman or a gay man being a bishop, presumably because they wouldn't be able to bring the necessary dignity to the job when wearing a purple frock.

Don't get me started on the ignorant bigots at christian voice who are trying to turn the looming election campaign into a debate on abortion and have even got the catholic and anglican archbishops to start pontificating on the issue.

Gits.